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3 thoughts on “How to Write a Mills and Boon (again)”

Really enjoyed that, Stella, if you don’t mind me just crashing up on here without so much as a hello first! It was really interesting to see that side of publishing (I’m a publicist for a publisher) and to see how very tight and controlled the Mills and Boon stories are. The popularity is lost on me, not being the target market, but I imagine they appear to be easy to write and that a lot of people think they can knock one out very easily which is a huge mistake.

Your story sounded really interesting. I have to ask if you were gripped enough by it to finish it, or perhaps transplant some of the core nuggets into something else?

A really interesting show, there’s not enough book shows on TV which is a shame!

thanks guys. glad you enjoyed it. I loved making it, though hasten to add the ‘week in Tuscany’ was actually two fifteen hour filming days in the real world! not quite so shiny perhaps … (and I’ve never been away to write, not sure I’d really like to, I like the stability of my office and my things around me.)

specifically :
Jon, no I didn’t finish the M&B book, it would have just taken too long (at 55,000 words) away from the book I was actually commissioned to write and half way through at the time of filming. I do think there’s a good germ of an idea there though, and was delighted M&B editor agreed, and certainly mean to do something with it one day. Though possibly not a book …

Mark : see the about me/my books pages above for how I got started (same as everyone else really, wrote a book, sent off 3 ch’s and synopsis to a few agents, had a couple of rejections and then was taken on, agent did the selling … that makes it sound very simple, of course the waiting and the wanting and rejection and acceptance mean it’s not, BUT it kind of is too – make the work as well as you can, get it out there, hope someone bites …)
Sorry, I don’t know anything about self-publishing, promotion or distribution – that’s what publishers are for I suspect! But I have heard some people have done very well with self-publishing, I imagine it’s the same old same old – getting your name out there somehow. Am sure someone will have written about it, how they made their huge self-publishing success … there’s bound to be a relevant blog somewhere!